Motorized Router Lift

[sandyj]

Thank you, John for the inspiration. Welcome aboard.
Yes I looked at your great site and used your ideas in fashioning my mortorised lift. I put in 2 mico switches to stop travel up and down as the driver would tended to unscrew itself. I am also looking at developing a variable stop when working in blind mortices - not removing the stock until 'job done'.
The original 'driver did not have to much torque so I utilised the 6v lead-acid batteries and when the lift is in use I have power going thru the original charger to top up the batteries. Not to complicated. I have torture tested the unit and after 30 minutes of constant up and down movement of the driver and morticing into pine off-cuts the unit did get quite warm but still functions well.

Once again thank you for the great idea and TOTAL CREDIT to you for a fine use of recycling.

Humbly yours,
Sandy from New Zealand

[johnwnixon]

Thank you, John for the inspiration. Welcome aboard.
Yes I looked at your great site and used your ideas in fashioning my mortorised lift. I put in 2 mico switches to stop travel up and down as the driver would tended to unscrew itself. I am also looking at developing a variable stop when working in blind mortices - not removing the stock until 'job done'.
The original 'driver did not have to much torque so I utilised the 6v lead-acid batteries and when the lift is in use I have power going thru the original charger to top up the batteries. Not to complicated. I have torture tested the unit and after 30 minutes of constant up and down movement of the driver and morticing into pine off-cuts the unit did get quite warm but still functions well.

Once again thank you for the great idea and TOTAL CREDIT to you for a fine use of recycling.

Humbly yours,
Sandy from New Zealand

Hi Sandy. Thanks for the warm welcome! I really enjoy seeing other people's take on the Motorized Router Lift. I've helped quite a few people build their own. My first version had a 3.2 volt motor that lasted about a year. I replaced it with a 12 volt cordless screwdriver (XD1200 by black and decker), and it works quite well. There's enough power there to get through dust covered threads on the raiser rod.

I like your limit switches. I built the same concept into the commercial version. I had another idea that I never incorporated that might be useful. An indicator light that can be seen above the table and glows when the router reaches the maximum depth. On my Hitachi M12V, I would put a little circuit contact between the depth rod and the stop rod. This way, if you were mortising, you'd know when you hit the max depth. Right now, I just rely on listening to the cutting sound - it's pretty easy to tell when you're no longer cutting (advancing the bit upwards).

Thanks again for the nice reply.

John Nixon - http://www.EagleLakeWoodworking.com

[johnwnixon]

Welcome aboard John,
Great videos you've made there. Can't wait to see what you come up with using the Shopsmith. It is a great tool. I know you will find years of satisfaction with it.

Thanks Jim! I enjoyed seeing you shop tour on YouTube. I like seeing a glimpse into the environment where other woodworkers work their magic. You should make a video of yourself in action!